I·ATE: Are you hungry? Barszcz, saltibarsciai, 罗宋汤 or борщ? What do you prefer?

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If we travel to the Slavic and Baltic countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, or Belarus we will find a very tasty soup made with beetroot as a main ingredient. But if we travel to the South East directly to Armenia and we first stay in Romania or Moldavia we can also find their own version. Even in China we can find another variety! Have you ever had the chance to try one of these traditional soups? Take a look at what we have found about this appetizing meal.

barszcz_i-ate

In Poland there are many versions of what they call barszcz. In some variants, smoked meat is used for the stock and its very particular tartness is obtained or enhanced by adding just some fresh lemon juice, dill pickle brine, or even with dry red wine. The presentation of the barszcz can vary too: we can served either in a soup bowl or – specially at dinner parties – as a hot beverage in a twin-handled cup, with a big croquette or with uszka, also known as “little ears” because of their shape, which are small dumplings (a small version of pierogi which you should already know very well). This last version is one of the main dishes for Christmas Eve “supper” in Poland, and we are talking about “supper” in quotation marks because it isn’t a light dinner. There is also a different barszcz called barszcz biały prepared specially for Easter dinners. Barszcz has a very nice red colour while barszcz biały is white (sometimes served in an edible bowl made of bread or with boiled potatoes.). The picture below presents a traditional Polish barszcz with uszka and barszcz biały in a bread bowl.

barscz-czerwony-i-bialy-barszcz

Also in Ukraine they have their own regional variants of borscht with different kind of meat, vegetables and even a specific method of cutting and cooking them. They also eats пампушкa (pampushka), which are small buns that are traditionally served with borscht. In Russia they cook борщ (boršč) while in Romania and Moldavia they just prepare borș or ciorbă, which differs from the Polish barszcz as it is cooked with no beetroot but with various vegetables and meat. боршч (borscht) version from Belarus has some big chunks of potatoes and it is cooked also with beetroot. In Lithuania they call it Šaltibarščiai and it is a cold beet soup with a very beautiful pink colour. Every saltibarsciai needs beets as the main ingredient. It is, after all, where the dish gets both its flavour and its colour from, together with kefir which is a fermented enzyme-rich cultured beverage that originates from the north Caucasus Mountains. The picture below presents an Ukranian borscht and a pink Lithuanian saltibarsciai.

barszcz-ukrainski-i-litewski

Jewish cuisine presents its own variant called באָרשט (borsht) while the Armenian version of բորշչ (borscht) is a hot soup made with beef stock, green peppers and some vegetables, which may or may not include beetroots. Sometimes it is flavoured with parsley and even some cilantro. If we continue travelling to Asia and we stay in Hong Kong they will probably offer us 罗宋汤 (luó sòng tāng) which is understood as a “Russian soup” and it is a version of the Russian борщ (boršč).

Have you tried barszcz, saltibarsciai or borscht before? Or any other beet soup for that matter? Feel free to comment below!


Written by Olga Jeczmyk: Translator-Interpreter, Social Media and Content Manager as well as Communication and Terminology Trainee. Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament in Luxembourg.

Sources:

  • Gamber, G. (2016) Lithuanian Saltibarsciai (cold beet soup) recipe. Available at: http://bit.ly/2eBoFt5 (Accessed: 28 October 2016).
  • Smaku, D. (no date) Barszcz czerwony. Available at: http://bit.ly/2eU6pKt (Accessed: 28 October 2016).
  • Williams, K. (2016) ’From A polish country house kitchen’s Barszcz. http://bit.ly/2dOoKuI (Accessed: 28 October 2016).
  • Wikipedia (2016) ‘Borscht’, in Wikipedia. Available at: http://bit.ly/2eM8OWX (Accessed: 28 October 2016).